Anyone who has bought medicine online may have wondered whether what arrived in the post was really what they’d paid for. They are not alone. A recent global survey found that around 60% of people fear their medicines could be fake – and the unsettling truth is that they have good reason to. About one in ten medicines sold worldwide is thought to be either counterfeit or substandard.
This is not simply a hazard for people buying weight-loss injections through a dubious Instagram link. It can just as easily catch out a traveller picking up antibiotics abroad, or anyone drawn to an online pharmacy by the promise of convenience.
